President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that future US support for the Gaza war depends on new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.

Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone days after Israeli airstrikes killed seven food aid workers in Gaza and added a new layer of complications to the increasingly tense relationship between the leaders.

He made clear that Israel must announce and implement a series of specific, concrete and measurable steps to address harm to civilians, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers, the White House said in a statement following the leaders’ call . He made clear that U.S. policy toward Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps.

Biden says Netanyahu is ‘hurting Israel’ by not preventing more civilian deaths in Gaza

Biden, a Democrat, also told Netanyahu that an immediate ceasefire is essential and urged Israel to reach a deal “without delay,” the White House said.

The leaders’ conversation comes as World Central Kitchen, founded by restauranteur Jos Andrs to provide immediate food aid to disaster-hit areas, called for an independent investigation into the Israeli attacks that killed the group’s staff, including one American citizen.

The White House has said the US has no plans to conduct its own investigation, even as it has called on Israel to do more to prevent the killings and injuries.

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innocent civilians and aid workers during its operations in Gaza.

In addition, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Brussels that U.S. support would be curtailed if Israel does not make significant adjustments in the way it conducts the war. If we don’t see the changes we need to see, there will be changes in our policies, he said.

Netanyahu to send Israeli officials to Washington to discuss Gaza war and food crisis

Biden was also expected to reiterate concerns about Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where some 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel seeks to eliminate Hamas after the deadly militant groups in October. 7 attack. Vice President Kamala Harris also joined the call.

Despite growing divisions, the Biden administration has moved quickly on arms transfers and deliveries to Israel, many of which were approved years ago but only partially or not at all implemented. Just this week, on Monday, the Democratic administration’s daily list of munitions transfers included the sale to Israel of more than 1,000 500-pound bombs and more than 1,000 1,000-pound bombs.

Officials said these transfers were approved before the list’s publication on Monday, the day Israeli airstrikes hit a World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza, killing seven of the group’s employees and putting them below the threshold for new congressional notification fell. They also noted that the bombs will not be delivered to Israel until 2025.

Israel has acknowledged responsibility for the attacks but said the convoy was not targeted and that the deaths of the workers were not intentional. The country continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killings.

As Biden and Netanyahu’s wave grows, the Israeli leader promises Gaza will last ‘until the end’

Andrs sharply criticized the Israeli army for the attack, and his organization has halted its work in Gaza.

The Israeli government must stop this arbitrary killing. It must stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon, he wrote on X. No more innocent lives will be lost.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostage.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is, experts say, among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. Researchers say that within two months the offensive had caused more destruction than the destruction of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionately, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the US has led. coalition did this in its three-year campaign against Islamic State.

Madhani and Miller write for the Associated Press. AP writers Matthew Lee in Brussels and Chris Megerian contributed.